SolarCity and Citi’s New Fund for Residential Solar

In a vote of confidence for SolarCity and residential solar, Citi (NYSE: C), a global financial services firm, just announced a new fund to finance $40 million in residential solar projects in 2011. This is the first collaboration between SolarCity and Citi, and Citi’s first investment in residential solar power. It is, however, the twelfth fund that SolarCity has received for this purpose.

According to Lyndon Rive, SolarCity's CEO, these funds tend to come in clusters, and to that point, Ben Cook, VP of Project Finance, said that he sees this as "the first of many funds we will do together." He went on to say, "Citi has consistently put its money where its mouth is when it comes to advancing clean power use, [and is now] extending that contribution to residential solar."

SolarCity will use the new fund to provide solar leases to homeowners to install solar panels on their homes. SolarCity has more than 10,000 projects completed or underway in the U.S. including more than 7,000 SolarLease customers. The company has raised project financing to fund more than $700 million in solar installations.